Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1887-03-19
BROWNING'S NEW POEMS.
A Book That VIII Give the Numer-
Gus "Clubs'' a Fine Opportunity
for Profound study


for Profound study.
Hence, get We homeward. We great
and renowned ones. nights children
unchilded. with kindly attendance
so. in English. run the words wherein
IEschylus takes farewell of the Eumen-
ides. Mr.. Browning Fates-Clotho'
Lachesis, and Atropos-bd us good-by
in his new poem thus:
Clotho: Bah!
Lachesis- Tra-la-la,
Atropos: Ha, ha ha
1t is true that words of Apolo's in
ierrupt these laconic greetings. and yet,
looking at the printed page, one feels
inclined to ask. Is this poetry, or an
extra ct from some classical extravan-
"a at the Savoy theater? Romanticism
is indeed triumphant. Perrault and
Hugo have triumphed over Boileau,
and Aristotle, and Eschylus, when Il
justly famous English poet can take
those liberties with the Fates. Even in
The days of Theophile, of the flamboy
ant waistcoat, it may be doubted
whether the widest of the generation
would have made Clotho, Lachesis.
and Atropos drink the wine of mortals
till they said bah, "tra-la-la," and
'Ha. ha. ha" TO god" Say boo to
YOU. pooh-pooh to you is within meas
urable distance of this familiarity. Mr..
Browning's new volume, in which
thasa onI ~ ka,. 81 10 nj nooY1r IL
styled "Parleving with certain people"
il is a return, and we think more for
tunate return, TO the form of art in
which Mr.. Browning wrought his best,
his immortal poems, the poems of "Men
and Women" and "Bramatis, Per-
sona." The prologue between Apollo
and the Fates is headed with referen-
res to texts in the Homcric hymn TO
Hermes, in the .Eumenides." and in
"Alcestis." Apollo held dialogue on
the value of mortal life, and especially
on the life of Admetus, for whom Al
cestis died with the Fates. The ideas
of the poem are interesting, and cast
their light on the foundations OF
things. 1t is too late to presume to
argue with Mr.. Browning on his meth
DDS. Lord Tennyson in youth altered
many of his poetic ways, as age brought
the philosophic, mind. and the philo-
sophie mind. as it CHANGED. rejected
most of the things which criticism had
censured. But MIR. Browning has ever
taken his own way. The classical taste
of the mere perruque with which we
confess a sympathy might deferen-
oil In m la
which MIR. Browning assigns 10 Lache-
Sis
Woc-purpled, weal-prankt-if it speed, IL it
linger-
Life'ssubstance and show are determined By
Who, meeting out, mixing, with sure thumb
and finger.
Lead look the due length; is all smoOthness
and glec,
All tangle and grief. take the lot, my decree!
The speech, difficult even with the
context, sufficiently displays the causes
of Mr.. Brownings obscurty. discovers
in his style those tenebriferOus stars"
by which Paracelsus is said to have eX-
planned the phenomena of night
Strange stars rayed out darkness. Par
acelsus dreamed. here be the similar
consultations Tor few of them) that
make Mr.. Browing's poetry obscure TO
the multitude. First come odd words;
"Shun an unusual word like a hidden
reef is said to have been the maxim of
no less critic than Caius Julius Cesar.
Now, ''purpled." in the first line. is q
very unusual word. Speaking from
memory alone we remember no more
familiar use of it than that of Mallory
in the Mort fArthur. king Ryahce
would purple his mantle with twelve
kings beads" One can fancy the well
meaning student of poetry looking out
purple" in his Eng ish dictionary and
practice of that sort is chilling work.
"Weal-prankt' is not so difficult
Doubtless the poet uses these archa-
isms and these clashing consonants
purposely. to indicate the archaic char
actef of the venerable Fates and the
harshness of their dispositions. In the
same stanza the words dead lock the
due length entirely battle us. We
have tried dead" and clock" both as
substantives and verbs, but unless they
are employed in some technical sense
we fail to get any meaning out of them.
This may be mere dizziness of appre-
hension, but other English poets yield
mp their treasures of their sense more
easily. The next stanza, Ineligible
enough, causes. like most of Chap
mans poetry and good deal of Keats
.'Endymion" an uncomfortable feeling.
as if rhyme had suggested the express
sion, rather than that the expression
subdued to itself the thyme.
The Fates, whose business it is to as
sign our mortal thread, weave it and
cut it short, as we
Moirai who dangled
The puppet grotesquely till earth's solid floor
Proved film he fell through, lost In nought as
before.
In too much of Mr. Browning's poe
try, as here, he seems to forget that
legends recorded by Pausanias. which
made Aphrodite the eldest of the Fates,
ofthe Moral, as he calls them. Thus
did Greece make beautiful, with the
grace of Aphrodte, even fateful doings:
but there is little Of her charm in these
words of Mr.. Browning's. Surely it is
q heresy TO divorce loneliness and
charm from poetry; to make triumph"
rhyme to ION high-umph!" and .'im-
pulse" to swine ere it reach brain
must brim pulse" Would any mortal
man talk of trimming pulse, except
for the sake of grotesque rhyme? So
very strange and un-Hellenic in form
Is this remarkable poem-so admirable
and valuable rs chain of thoughts.
that one Is driven to doubt whether,
after all. deep knowledge of the class